RELIGIOUS LIBERTY. 



THE ALLEGED FAILURE OF PROTESTANTISM: 

A SERMON 

PHEACHED m 

THE UNITAEIAN CHUKCH, 

AT WASHINGTON, ON WASHINGTON'S BIRTH-DAY, 
February 22, 1852. 

x*— — 

BY HENRY W^'BELLOWS. 



PUBLISHED BY REQUEST OF THE SOCIETY. 




WASHINGTON: 

FEINTED BY KIRKWOOD & McGILL. 

1852. 



4 



SERMON 



JOHN, VIII. 32. 

"AND YE SHALL KNOW THE TRUTH, AND THE TRUTH SHALL MAKE YOU FREE." 

Martin Luther, the modern representative of religious lib- 
erty, was buried on the 22d of February, 1546 ; George Wash- 
ington, the modern representative of political liberty, was born 
on the 22d of February, 1732 ; and, although nearly two hun- 
dred years divided the period of their respective lives, we might 
almost feel as if the shroud of Luther had been the swaddling- 
clothes of Washington. While Luther communicated to the 
world the greatest impulse to mingled freedom and ml in reli- 
gion which it has received since Paul's day, Washington gave to 
universal civilization the noblest and most powerful impulse it 
ever felt from regulated political liberty. Luther was a political 
religionist ; Washington a religious politician ; and both of them 
devoted to freedom. Neither of them speculated about religion, 
or politics, without immediate reference to practicable and prac- 
tical results. They were both rather men of action than men of 
thought. Other men, both in religion and politics, have distin- 
guished themselves more by bold inquiry and unfettered pursuit 
of theoretical truth. Erasmus and Melancthon were better 
scholars, and perhaps more consistent thinkers, than Luther, in 
the days of the Reformation ; and Hamilton and Adams were 



Note. — It is proper to state that this Sermon was •written, and first preached 
in New York, just a year previous to the date of its publication, and was called 
forth by Bishop Hughes's sermon on the "Decline of Protestantism." 



4 



men of more scholarship and brilliancy of thought than Wash- 
ington, Roger Williams and Thomas Jefferson carried out the 
pure ideas of religious and political liberty with more power and 
consistency than Luther and Washington. But these, last names 
are those of practical men — men who belonged not more to the 
kingdom of ideas than to the world of people and things, and who 
felt themselves as responsible for results as for opinions. They 
were natural leaders of men ; born reformers — who were impelled 
by an equal desire to move forward themselves, and to carry the 
world with them. This made them not only great men, but wise 
men — not merely bold, but cautious — not only great to posterity, 
but great to their own times ; because eminently successful. The 
readiness with which the whole world has admitted the claim of 
these apostles of Liberty, illustrates the homage which is paid to 
success — to practical talents, to popular command — when in any 
good degree justified by personal worth and noble aims. The 
popular enthusiasm about Napoleon, the most illustrious man of 
action the world ever saw, shows that even selfishness and vice 
cannot take all the lustre from power and success. But Luther 
was a religious Napoleon — Washington a philanthropic Napoleon, 
They had his power over men, his faculty of ruling, with hearts 
devoted to God and Humanity; and while he must forever stand 
in the admiration of men, like the pyramid he apostrophized in 
his Egyptian campaign, a vast and magnificent monument of ill- 
devoted and useless power and skill, they will live in the honor 
of the world, more like the river that rolls at its base, mighty 
and beneficent, fertilizing and unfailing. And yet, brethren, 
there are those, even higher than they — men whom neither 
pyramids nor mountains, rivers nor plains, nor anything below 
the stars of heaven, can symbolize — men in whom action yielded 
to suffering — men of grand thought and sublime feeling — of whom 
their age was not worthy ; who achieved no success while they 
lived, and the glory of whose influence is lost in its depth and its 
diffusiveness — not the followers of Paul, but of Jesus. The king- 
dom of heaven cometh not with observation. He that did not 
strive nor cry, and whose voice was not heard in the streets, is, 
after all, the deepest, widest, and noblest benefactor of men ; and 



5. 

the influences which have entered the world from men of pure 
thought and exalted feeling, while they neither dazzle nor take 
palpable form, are nobler and deeper than those the most suc- 
cessful men of action can boast. Milton was greater than Luther, 
and the day may come when Channing will be deemed greater 
than Washington. Thus much let me s?^y in reverence to the 
truth, even in honoring to the utmost the memory of the men 
whom the 22d of February brings to our minds ; for when we 
praise the good, who are at the same time successful, we must 
take care that the homage we render to worth is not appropriated 
by power. 

Luther and Washington, together, represent the great idea of 
modern times — practical freedom, civil and religious. Their 
influence was never more potent, their inspiration never more 
precious, than now. 

The extent of the influence which this country has had upon 
the prospects of political liberty in the Eastern Hemisphere can- 
not be exaggerated. It is not too much to say, that the success 
of our institutions is the ruin of theirs. The monarchs and aris- 
tocracies of Europe could hp^ve well afforded to relinquish half 
their prerogatives and privileges to have bought the failure of our 
democratic experiment. It would be a delightful task to-day to 
trace the triumphs of our principles in the condition and pros- 
pects of foreign politics ; for every crown in Europe would be 
seen to be nodding to the plume of him who was " first in war, 
first in peace, and first in the hearts of his fellow-countrymen." 
But a topic more appropriate to the day and the place com- 
mands our attention, i. e. The prospects of religion, under the 
condition of that ecclesiastical freedom which Luther bequeathed 
to the church by his death, and Washington certified by his birth 
to our own beloved land. The subject has a peculiar interest 
at this time from the direct antagonism of Protestantism and 
Homanism. 

The Reformation, after having achieved all its territorial tri- 
umphs within Luther's own day, is about resuming its obstructed 
career, called into activity by the revival of its old foe. The 
Catholic Church, the constant representative of an authority in 



a 



religion independent of reason or voluntary allegiance, is par- 
taking the reanimating influences of the world, and seeking in 
that decay of vigilance which has attended the great success of 
Protestantism, or in that diversion of religious thought which 
accompanies the social prosperity of the world, to win back to 
herself the lost heart of Christendom. Seeing how much of her 
old leaven still lived in the Reformed Church, and that Protest- 
antism had come to a stand ; noticing that the religious affections 
of many souls in Protestant countries were wandering in search 
of grateful objects of interest; that sects were breaking up, and 
a great many of their adherents had become either tired of liberty 
or indifferent to religion, — -the Catholic Church has naturally 
enough concluded that Protestantism is a self-conscious failure, 
about to give up its struggle for independence, and leave the prodi- 
gal child to fall back into the arms of its parent. She has accord- 
ingly announced the decline of Protestantism, and commenced 
her aggressive career in a country long known as the bulwark of 
the reformed faith. But she finds, to her consternation, that what 
she mistook for death was only sleep, and that her bold tread has 
waked the lion whose long indifference to her stealthy foot-fall she 
had mistaken for weakness and decay. It is manifest that a new 
struggle has begun between the Catholic Church and the Protest- 
ant; or, rather, between the elements of religious authority and 
religious liberty. Unfortunately, it has not commenced in England 
in a pure form ; for there, unhappily, on account of the political 
complication of affairs, and the union of Church and State, the 
Catholics, who represent the element of spiritual despotism in 
religious opinion, represent the element of spiritual liberty in 
their suffering struggle for toleration — the English people being 
in a manner forced to defend real freedom in religion by perse- 
cuting a form of faith which has always assailed religious liberty, 
except when claiming toleration for itself. It is to be devoutly 
hoped that some way may be devised of checking the subtle in- 
fluence of Romanism, without violating the proud and generous 
principles of universal toleration which have ennobled British 
legislation during the last twenty years. 

But whatever may be done in England, the conflict between 



7 



authority and liberty in matters of religion- — between a con- 
science in charge of a church and a conscience in charge of its 
owner — is destined to go forward. The struggle may be a 
long one, for to dethrone ideas which had fifteen centuries 
of undivided sway, may take at least five centuries. It was 
preposterous to suppose that two or three centuries could 
change the religious ideas of the whole Christian world. The 
Reformation aimed at nothing less than this; and if it had 
had exclusive possession of society meanwhile, it might have 
accomplished more than it has; but it has had a busy world 
to do its work in. Its pupil has been able to give only an 
interrupted attention to his religious lessons, being much occu- 
pied with other great teachers. The political, social, and com- 
mercial revolutions which have been meanwhile going on, have, 
in a great degree, preoccupied the affections and attention 
of the world; and while to a certain extent favorable to the 
principles of the Reformation, have in other ways been unfa- 
vorable to them, by lessening the exclusive importance of the 
church question. Thus the religious reformation could not go 
on while the convulsive struggle for political liberty was agitating 
the world; and the universal industry and material prosperity of 
society have in a manner diminished its interest and importance, 
as it has dulled to a great extent the activity and efficiency of 
the Catholic Church. But since the political power of the papacy 
broke down, its spiritual power, being less suspected, has revived. 
Moreover, as a period of abstract thought and a class of retired 
thinkers have returned, and ideas have resumed their importance 
and sway, the Catholic ideas (not its hierarchical powers) have re- 
appeared to contend with the Protestant ideas for the mastery. 
The question of old church and reformed church is not now a 
question of politics, of popular passions — a conflict of time- 
hallowed prejudices with new impulses — of priestcraft with con- 
gregational ind,ependency; but it is a battle of ideas, to be fought 
in the intellect and in the study — a question of experience and 
religious philosophy. It is in this form that the revived struggle 
is to be waged — the great question being simply this : Is man 
well enough disposed and wise enough to be left free in the choice 



8 



and application of his religion? Catholicism says he is not; and 
that God has, on this very account, inspired a Church, and given 
it ample and infallible authority to furnish man a religion — pre- 
scribing what is to be believed and to be done, to secure salvation. 
On the other hand, Protestantism, in Luther's day, said he was wise 
enough and good enough to be left to himself in the choice and 
application of his religion, and asserted, against the merits which 
the church treasured for its disciples, the doctrine of justification 
by faith alone; against its infallibility, the sufficiency of the 
Scriptures; and against its authority, the right of private judg- 
ment. And this is what Protestantism is now called upon to 
re-assert, and, what is more, to prove, both scientifically and prac- 
tically. And to do it, she must modify many of her notions ; for 
her theology contradicts her position, and experience contradicts 
her boasts. 

This is not popular doctrine. We are well aware of the com- 
mon unquestioning confidence in Protestantism, and the popular 
ignorance, in a country divided by a wide ocean from the theatre 
of Rome's great dominion, respecting the relative power and 
character of Catholicism. It is very much the habit of Protest- 
ants to claim all that is inspiring in modern history as the direct 
and exclusive product of their own principles and labors ; while 
Romanism is not slow to charge upon Protestantism all that is dis- 
couraging in the condition and prospects of the countries under her 
control ; their infidelity, their industrial poverty, and their anarchy. 
But Protestantism is neither as good nor as bad as she passes for 
with her friends and her enemies. "When Protestantism claims all 
the victories which have attended the combined company of pro- 
gressive ideas belonging to modern times, she forgets that the 
New World was discovered by a Catholic, and the tremendous 
impulse which that achievement has given to the intellect and 
enterprise of the race. She forgets that the printing press pre- 
ceded the Reformation, and revived learning, causing in part 
that and other similar movements of the human mind. She 
forgets that Catholic France has played under Bonaparte the 
largest part in the world's history for a hundred years back ; and 
that all the Catholicism in the world could not have materially 



9 



retarded the political and commercial progress of civilization 
under those three potent stimulants — the revival of letters, the 
power of the printing press, and the discovery of the New World. 
True, Protestantism, purely as such, has done great things for 
society; but it is as preposterous for her to claim the merit of 
all the advantages which Protestant countries now possess over 
Catholic lands, as for the free States to attribute their superiority 
to the slave States entirely to the absence of slavery. As it is 
the climate, products, and interests of the Southern States which 
now make them slaveholding States, united to their want of com- 
mercial advantages; so it was the fate of the older States of 
Christendom, which had in a manner run their career, to sink into 
lethargy when Protestantism leagued with other causes to ani- 
mate the fresher and then less distinguished parts of the earth. 
Italy and Spain had had their turn of splendor, and Catholicism 
did nothing to prevent them from producing a most brilliant 
"civilization ; so that some of the highest names in literature and 
art are still furnished from their catalogues. It was time for the 
North to blossom ; and Protestantism was as much indebted for her 
success to other causes then animating northern Europe, as they 
were in turn to her enlivening influences. There is always more 
immediate life, too, in the attacking party, and in the new idea ; 
and thus the Protestant world had an advantage over its more 
venerable opponent, not wholly ascribable to the truth and good- 
ness of its cause. 

Protestantism has had, thus far, its failures as well as its suc- 
cesses. It stopped short, most unexpectedly to itself, in its terri- 
torial victories, having since gained in Europe hardly an inch upon 
the ground which Luther's setting sun left Catholic. It aimed, too, 
at unity of doctrine. It expected to have a church as catholic, 
as popular, as engrossing as the Roman, without its Pope, its 
ritual, and its tyranny. And what has been its history? It 
freed many nations and many minds from the Catholic dominion, 
which it has not been able to bring entirely under its own. Its 
creed has broken into a thousand pieces — its church into a 
thousand sects. Literature and science, escaped from Roman 
bondage, have not heartily sought Protestant protection; and 



LP 



much of the most profound science, and brilliant history, and 
fascinating literature of the emancipated world, has been unchris- 
tian and infidel. Art has withered in its keeping. The boldest 
schemes of social reform, the freest mind of the- age, the most 
genuine literature, are perhaps as much opposed to Protestantism 
as to Catholicism, or equally indifferent to both. The masses of 
the poor are doubting whether the charities of the old church were 
not preferable to the tender mercies of the new. Above all, the 
best thought in every department of life, whether in social, com- 
mercial, or literary circles, seems to be running on independently, 
if not in disdain, of the scientific theology of Protestantism. The 
trinity, the atonement, the doctrine of total depravity — the whole 
theology of the Reformers — appears to be nearly as much aside 
from the path of the actual mind and heart of the world, as is 
the discarded house of a shell-fish from its track to the sea. AVhat 
doctrine of Calvinism does the popular literature, the popular 
science, the social manners and habits of the age, recognise? 
Prom what one of the Reformers have the most successful moral 
teachers of the times — Eclgeworth and Scott, and Dickens and 
Irving — learned their philosophy? It is far more Catholic than 
Calvinistic in its tone ; while the gay, festive life of the world, its 
hopeful and self-indulgent tone, savors more of Roman than 
Genevan theology. Thus Protestantism has been in no small 
degree a failure, if its true mission was its own formal triumph ; 
or if its success was to consist in supplying to the world the 
motherly and protecting office which the old church rendered. 
It has not taken the place of the Catholic Church. It has not 
retained within itself, as that did, all the learning and taste, or 
all the poverty and sorrow of the world. Modern thought and 
modern wretchedness both turn from it — one to philosophy, the 
other to socialism ; while the Catholic Church picks up from both 
ends of society — from the learned and the ignorant — the select 
few who are moved by religious longings for faith and repose. 

The fact is, Protestantism little knew what she was doing when 
she combined with the other free influences of the times, to set 
the human mind at large. She knew not the Samson she un- 
bound. A power that would not be controlled was set loose in 



i! 



the earth; and the great and anxious question since, becoming 
every day more serious and pressing, is this : Whether man, left 
perfectly at liberty, (as Protestantism, to be consistant, must say 
he ought to be,) will choose Christianity for his religion, or will 
have any religion at all ? France, in her social practices, has 
answered that question essentially in the negative ; Germany, in 
her loose philosophy and irreligious tendencies of speculation, 
has given it an intellectual denial ; and this country, in its foreign 
population, and among no small portion of its most characteristic 
and enthusiastic youth, says something not very different. It is 
in this dilemma that the enlightened advocates of Catholicism 
come forward, and claim an acknowledgment from Protestantism 
that she has failed in her enterprise and her prophecies, and invite 
her to restore the religious conduct of Christendom to the authori- 
tative guidance of the Church; and some of the best and most 
powerful minds of the age have been overpowered by their argu- 
ment and returned to her communion. 

Under these circumstances, what reason have we for not 
despairing of Protestantism, or for saying that she has not 
failed in her mission ? Simply this : that Catholicism, and even 
the Reformed Church itself, misstate the true work of Pro- 
testantism when they ascribe a positive power to it, or expect 
any results from it corresponding with those which the old church 
had produced. Luther and the Reformers doubtless supposed 
that they were taking the direction of the human mind into their 
own hands away from the church ; they were, in fact, only taking 
off manacles and chains from its powers, and giving it up to itself. 
The work of Protestantism has been thus far essentially negative, 
destructive — stripping off one after another of the old bandages 
from humanity, and permitting it to feel the free action of its 
limbs. True, it has meanwhile taught its creed diligently; 
but the attention of the world has been far more occupied with 
the liberty it gave than with the dogmas it preached: the free- 
dom has been a novelty and a reality, according with its political 
and social instincts ; the dogmas, largely brought over from the 
old church, and very ill suited to the new times. The conse- 
quence has been that more and more latitude, mdefmiteness and 



12 



inefficiency have cliaracterized the doctrine and discipline of the 
Protestant Church, while the heart of its people has gone into 
other channels than purely religious ones. We Unitarians, who 
are Protestants of the Protestants, must, I think, recognise the 
fact that our work hitherto (so far as the world is concerned) has 
been essentially a negative one — denying error, contending for 
entire freedom, disowning dogma and discipline; while we have 
been much more united in opposition to mental and ecclesiastical 
tyranny than in love and devotion to positive Christianity. This 
demolition of the Bastiles of the human mind is now destined to go 
on until not one stone is left upon another. There is very little 
doubt that every form of orthodoxy will pass through some phase 
of skepticism, and every form of church government not purely 
congregational and democratic, be broken up. It will not be at 
all strange to see those who are now rationalists among the most 
earnest defenders of revealed religion, when those who are now 
Calvinists are among its most lax interpreters. The laws of the 
human mind predict such a future ; and Protestantism will not have 
thoroughly accomplished its work until it destroys the Christianity 
of mere authority, of habit, prejudice, birth, education, conven- 
tion, and custom, and leaves the adult human mind an opportu- 
nity intelligently to adopt Christianity, of its own free will and 
choice. 

When that day comes — and its dawn is not distant, we hope — 
we shall hear as little about Protestantism as we do about Catholi- 
cism. The true faith will no longer be a Protestant, but an 
affirmative faith. Men will begin to put on beautiful garments 
of real belief, instead of throwing off ugly chains of prescription. 
The world will have set earnestly about the inquiry, not what is 
to be doubted, but what may be credited. Instead of fearing 
religious bondage, we shall dread spiritual nakedness ; and reli- 
gion, in place of being the least genial interest of humanity, will 
be the most lovely and popular friend of the race. 

If it be asked what grounds of confidence we have that any 
such result will follow the destructive work of Protestantism, we 
answer that the reanimation of the Catholic Church is itself a 
delightful token of the strength of the religious instincts and affec- 



13 



tions in man ; and that the return of many to the Mother Church is 
only a proof and earnest of the gladness with which the whole work 
would embrace a positive religion, if its intellect and social interests 
allowed it to do so. It is the positive element in the Romish reli- 
gion that constitutes its fascination. Let there be a positive element 
developed out of the negations of Protestantism, and the world 
will open its whole soul to receive it. Man is a religious being, 
and the more entirely and completely his nature is developed, 
the more emphatically will his profoundest instincts appear. 
This is what Protestantism pretends to believe, w T hen she decides 
against Romanism, i. e. that man left to himself will choose 
Christianity for his faith. Romanism says he will not do so ; that 
he will become infidel, and go to ruin. Protestantism denies this, 
and affirms instead, that he will finally freely choose what Catholi- 
cism attempts to force upon him, and crushes his intellectual nature 
when she succeeds. The thorough emancipation of the human 
mind — the free exercise of the intellect, the development of all 
the various individualities, tastes, passions, and propensities of man 
in his increasing liberty — will soon allow him an opportunity of 
testing every form of national and of private life, of intellectual 
state and moral condition. The various nations left to their own 
choice will place before us the result of all possible experiments 
in government and society. The best intellects of the world will 
freely measure themselves against each other, in discussing the 
truth and falsehood of opinions — political, social, and religious. 
Nothing can save, nothing ought to save, Christianity, from the 
most scientific and fearless inquisition ; nothing will be able to 
protect error from exposure, or withhold truth from publication. 
And we cannot doubt the result. If we may not trust it, Pro- 
testantism is a curse, for it has taught us the right of private 
judgment ; if we may, then there is every reason to predict the 
return of the world to a positive faith. If Christianity is true, 
and will bear the test of science, of course it is destined to a very 
different place in human affections from what is now allotted it. 
If the religious life — if the example, hopes, prospects, and pre- 
cepts of Christ are really adapted to this very world we live in, 
and to the very heart and soul we carry within us ? of course they 



14 



are not forever to be droned from pulpits into dull ears, and 
associated with all that is gloomy, unreal, unattractive, and pas- 
sionless in human life. You must know very well, brethren, that 
the kind of interest which most of you have in the Christian 
religion at present, is a very different one from that you have in 
your business and homes, and has a very small connexion with 
them. You cannot suppose that a ministerial and professional 
interest like mine, and a customary and traditional interest like 
yours, represent, either separately, or together, the true interest 
of a religion which assumes to be the choicest gift and the dearest 
concern of the Almighty God. There is something preposterous 
in the vast importance which God is supposed or asserted to 
attach to religion, when contrasted with the practical importance 
which our inmost hearts ascribe to it. It only shows how nega- 
tive and dead our Protestantism is, and what need we have of 
the revival of a positive religion in our hearts. 

But this positive religion will not appear without the use of 
means. Freedom, whether political or religious, has no power to 
produce anything. It merely leaves the faculties free to act. 
On the other hand, the opposites of freedom — absolute govern- 
ments and hierarchies, which exist independently of the people, 
have a positive power. They superintend both the pleasures, the 
customs, the opinions, and the faith and worship of the people. 
But freedom destroys the positive functions of church and state. 
Its theory is, as little meddling as possible with the tastes, pur- 
suits, customs, feelings of the people. They may be trusted to 
look out for their own interests. But what if they do not look 
out for them? Then freedom is worse than tyranny. It is 
manifest that did we not have voluntary institutions of learning 
and religion in this country, we should be worse off, with all our 
freedom, than Prussia and England, with their state-endowed 
schools and churches. But the very principle of Protestantism, 
that man may be trusted, secures us in the support of these 
things ; and, in point of fact, we do support both religion and 
education generously in this country ; and, in doing so, we are 
doing only what is necessary, and what our duty and destiny 
require. Even should there be some blindness in our zeal and 



15 



generosity, it is not to be deplored ; for we have a general instinct 
which belongs to liberty, that the reason for having freedom at 
all is because all of man ought to come out and must come out. 
Education is a part of liberty, and not only because it renders it 
safe, but achieves the thing itself. It is liberty. For liberty con- 
sists not' chiefly in removing the external restraints of church 
and state, but the internal barriers of ignorance and prejudice — 
the tyranny of the senses — of custom, habit, and outward circum- 
stances — of dullness, moral rust, and mental stupor. In main- 
taining schools and churches, we make a positive contribution 
to liberty, as, in beating down monarchies and ecclesiastical pre- 
tensions and institutions, we make only a negative one. The 
same spirit which destroys the arm of spiritual and civil despotism, 
upholds the arm of the teacher. If, brethren, you would hasten 
the day when a positive and pure religion shall sweep from the 
earth the doubt, the selfishness, the sorrow, and want which 
Christianity, as now received, knows not how to deal with, edu- 
cate the people ! We must get wisdom from God, through man's 
experience. We must get Christianity interpreted by the highest 
and largest intelligence of the race under the freest conditions of 
thought and life. Here, in this free land, let education, religious 
and secular, have our most generous support. Start every sleep- 
ing talent of humanity into life ! Water every precious seed of 
human capacity ! Let there not be a mind in the country that 
does not lend its light to the cause of truth ! Educate ! — edu- 
cate ! — by all teachers, religious and lay ! Stimulate and^develop 
the vast mass of latent mind in the country. It lies as the virgin 
gold lay for ages on the Californian river banks. Bring it forth, 
and add it to the wealth of the world. Then will freedom have set 
man free, and freemen will choose for Lord and Master, Him who 
alone is worthy to lead the free to new heights of liberty — to new 
realms of glory and peace. 



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